Love, Loss, and What I Wore

Dawn Wells as Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island."

Leave it to Sis to get discount theater tickets for us. She works as a research scientist in rehabilitation engineering at the V.A. Hospital in NYC. It's affiliated with NYU, and I guess they send bargain offers to employees. In the past, she's taken me under her wing to see "Tru," "A Few Good Men" and other great Broadway shows. "Tru," a one-man show starring Robert Morse as the aging Truman Capote [one of my favorite writers], was one of the best things I've ever seen. I can still remember the set, the lonely man, the light glowing in the apartment at United Nations Plaza, the voices on the answering machine. It was brilliant.

Tonight was lighter. We had $45 front-row tickets to see the off-Broadway production of "Love, Loss, and What I Wore," based on the book by the same name by Ilene Beckerman and adapted for the stage by writing sisters Nora and Delia Ephron. After Joe Allen on Restaurant Row, where we sipped Pinot Grigio poured from little glass pitchers and had nice plates of food in a bustling atmosphere, this was a fun cordial downstairs at the Westside Theatre.

I loved sitting next to my Sis, taking the peppermint she always offers me, leaning on her sweatered arm, chuckling with her at the dialogue about the color black, handbags, bras, boots, heels, dressing rooms--and men, marriage, mothers, children. The theater is small and intimate. The cast for the show has rotated since it opened in 2009, featuring Jane Lynch; Alexis Bledel; Didi Conn; Tyne Daly; Eve Plumb; Fran Drescher; Barbara Feldon; Anne Meara [my mother liked her]; and Brooke Shields, among many other stars. Tonight's cast of five: Dawn Wells [who played Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island"], Robin Strasser [from "The Guiding Light," and excellent here on stage];  Zuzanna Szadkowski; Alexandra Silber; and Quincy Tyler Bernstine [warm and wonderful]. I've never watched the TV show "Gossip Girl," but the Playbill says Zuzanna is on it, so between her and Blake Lively, I want to tune in. Zuzanna was really, really dead-on funny.

They all wore black....pants with a velvet jacket, an hourglass dress, a lace-sleeved sheath. And all had dressy high heels and nice stockings. It was really engrossing and entertaining. One hundred minutes, no intermission.

Signing off a bit more cultured, and thankful for my Sis. Good night.

P.S. Fascinating footnote under Who's Who in the Cast: CREDITS  Clothing provided by Bloomingdale's.....All black, machine washable clothing used in the show has been treated with Bounce dryer sheets.

TCOY

1. Ummmmmm....nothin? Yikes, I'm slipping, must pull myself back up! No fruit, no nothin', unless we count the onions and carrots I threw in a pan to roast with some chicken. But I have been working productively,  pitching ideas, etc.
2. Listened to and really liked Paul McCartney's "Kisses on the Bottom," the CD H. got me for Valentine's Day. Really sweet and soothing music. Glad he got it for me.